Wolff promises pit stop improvement

Toto Wolff admits Mercedes may have been too conservative with Lewis Hamilton's pit stops in Austria but does not believe the delays had any impact on the race result.

Hamilton lost nearly two seconds in the box compared to Nico Rosberg in Austria, which accounted for the German's eventual margin of victory over his team-mate. After the race Hamilton admitted his positioning may have been at fault and it later emerged this had been the issue at the first stop, while damage on the car's "cake-tin" had been costly at the second.

Wolff says the team was also playing it safe with Hamilton in a race with Valtteri Bottas for second and concedes it is an area Mercedes can improve on.

"Obviously our pit stops generally were not on the level we wanted them to be," Wolff said. "We were always on the conservative side because we had quite a gap to the other teams and we did not want to ruin it with an unsafe release. Maybe that is a thing we need to look at and get aggressive again if the gaps to other teams narrows down.

"But then in Lewis' favour we pitted him early, before Nico, which is against what we normally do, usually it's the leading car who gets the call and pits early. In this case we pitted Lewis in order to jump Valtteri so he had the benefit of the strategy even though he was second on track."

Though some fans cried foul after the race, Wolff thinks it is important to remember Hamilton's qualifying spin left him facing an uphill battle from ninth on the grid.

"Yes of course but he lost the race in qualifying," he said when asked if the stops were costly. "He recovered tremendously with a great start and a great first lap. In all our calculations the best result was a second and he achieved a second."